Clegg completes Thatcherite conversion with Maggie metaphor
Nick Clegg’s economic philosophy switched from Keynesian to deficit hawk in early May. He completed the conversion today by using Thatcher’s flawed household debt metaphor.
Green Politics
Who will turn London green?
Joss Garman puts Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson and Oona King’s green policies and record to the test – read on to find out who comes top.
A responsible deficit reduction plan
With the Spending Review just four weeks away, pressure is beginning to ramp up on George Osborne with widespread public dissatisfaction over his cuts and a challenge from his colleague, Boris Johnson, over the strategy. Pre-empting the Labour leadership candidates’test
Cable reopens rift on immigration cap
Business secretary Vince Cable appeared to be on a collission course with his coalition partners this afternoon, hitting out at the immigration cap.
A middle way for economic recovery
The world has moved into a period where there will be a persistent shortfall of demand in the economies of the West compared with what is necessary for full employment.
Recovery was fragile before Coalition’s cuts began to undermine confidence
There are warning signs in today’s unemployment stats that the recovery was fragile even before the coalition’s enthusiasm for cuts started choking confidence.
New financial regulations will harm households and small businesses
The financial sector breathed a sigh of relief this week as the Basel Committee’s recommendations for new rules on banking regulations were announced; stock markets around the world rallied. Rules on the amount of capital banks must hold to cover risk – and the extent to which reserves must be liquid – are less stringent than expected.
Recycling is a win-win for the environment and the economy
Recycling is a success story – and one which Friends of the Earth and our supporters have been at the heart of since our first campaign to persuade Schweppes to take back used bottles in 1971.
Osborne’s VAT increase: regressive and avoidable
George Osborne’s decision to raise VAT to 20 per cent from January 2011 has been widely described as regressive, including by the new Head of the Office of Budget Responsibility Robert Chote. Mr Chote has also emphasised the extent to which raising VAT was not unavoidable, and was in fact a choice made by Mr Osborne.
Voters don’t buy Coalition cuts – with nearly half blaming them for the deficit
Asked which strategy for managing the budget deficit they agreed with, voters put the Coalition’s plans last. Just 22 per cent supported the Government’s attempt to deal with the deficit by the next election, compared to the 74 per cent who were evenly split between Labour’s proposal to reduce the deficit by half over the next five years.